Author: benfell

David Benfell holds a Ph.D. in Human Science from Saybrook University. He earned a M.A. in Speech Communication from CSU East Bay in 2009 and has studied at California Institute of Integral Studies. He is an anarchist, a vegetarian ecofeminist, a naturist, and a Taoist.

There really isn’t much new[1] in Gordon Brown’s warning that Brexit may break up the United Kingdom and London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s call for a national unity government to stop a hard Brexit.[2] Such a panic was foreseeable as the consequences of this insanity sink in. Read more →

This is not the kind of thing I normally cover (unsatisfactorily rebutted allegations of Donald Trump’s ‘golden showers’ [1] notwithstanding). But, together, the possibilities that 1) Jeffrey Epstein’s death in prison may not have been suicide and 2) his death, if indeed murder, may have been intended to protect other elites[2] bring it to my outer perimeter. Read more →

As I have previously noted, the gun nuttery in Pennsylvania is strong and appears white supremacist in motivation.[1] Democrats might score a political point in pushing so-called “common sense” gun legislation,[2] but my version of “common sense” suggests they won’t change a single solitary thing. Read more →

As a hard Brexit looms (nothing has changed here—it is still the legal default[1]), as Boris Johnson’s government keeps pedaling its bicycle at a brick wall,[2] and as plotters plot to prevent it but lack a certain path to do so,[3] there was a suggestion that a “humble petition” might be passed by Parliament asking the Queen to travel to Brussels to ask for an extension to the Brexit deadline.[4] “Earlier this week, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, threatened to send the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to Buckingham Palace ‘in a cab’ taxi to tell the Queen that the Opposition would be Labour is ‘taking over’ if Mr Johnson were to lose a no-confidence vote but refused to resign.”[5] (Would he bow?[6] Inquiring minds want to know.) It appears Her Majesty isn’t interested.[7]Read more →

Law enforcement functions largely to protect property, of which the rich have a lot, and of which the poor have very little; and therefore the rich, whose needs are largely satisfied, against the poor, whose needs are not.[1] It is why you see a disproportionately large police presence in wealthy communities. And it is why you so rarely see police in poor communities and then mostly when something awful has happened. Read more →

Venezuela is a place (like North Korea) where I am not satisfied with the news coverage I’m getting. There is much too much demonization for credibility, demonization that seemed to me to intensify when Hugo Chávez ordered free heating oil for poor residents in the U.S.[1] And journalists have for much too long and much too often served as stenographers for political power, especially in foreign policy.[2]Read more →

The International Crisis Group has released a report comparing the situation between Iran and the U.S. to that just before World War I, saying that a provocation could spark a wider conflict today just as an assassination did then. It calls for third party mediation to de-escalate the conflict.[1]Read more →

Relative to California, where I lived for over fifty years, Pennsylvania is weird about guns. Really weird.

I’m not just talking about your garden variety hunting rifles, handguns, or even machine guns. That would be like the Lawrence County state representative’s bill to legalize concealed carry without a permit.[1]Read more →